Immigration Lawyers Object to Unfair Rules Change

Posted by: Phoenix Arizona Immigration Attorneys at Alcock & Associates Law Firm
Immigration Lawyers Object to Unfair Rules Change

Once again local immigration attorneys are bristling another rules change that will make our client’s lives more difficult. Instead of simply going to their local consulate, alien relatives must now mail their I-130 forms to Chicago. I can tell you that the problems these family members will experience will probably be enormous. If you have a face to face meeting with a consular official, little mistakes and omissions can be fixed. If you mail in an I-130 with similar errors it might get rejected and sent back. Also, immigration law firms will probably sign up more clients because more people will hire lawyers. But this isn’t the type of work that we should do. A rule change that makes it harder for people to be with their families is not something I could ever support.

Originally posted to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/us/13iht-immigration.html

U.S. Visa Rule Will Burden Families, Lawyers Say
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
WASHINGTON — A new U.S. visa rule, taking effect Monday, appears likely to substantially lengthen the amount of time that Americans living overseas must wait before bringing along their noncitizen spouses or children if they have to move home quickly for personal or professional reasons, immigration lawyers say.

The U.S. immigration authorities say the new approach, which involves the processing of a visa document known as the I-130, allowing the entry of a citizen’s alien relative, will be more “efficient and consistent and centralized”; most applicants abroad will now mail their applications to a central office in Chicago, as Americans in the United States with foreign-national relatives now do. The authorities predict a five-month maximum for processing there; applicants then have to apply to the U.S. State Department for the actual visa.

But the current system for those abroad, which relies on in-person visits to U.S. consular or immigration offices, can take just one to three months, often without a lawyer’s services, and with less risk of important documents going astray or of minor problems dragging on, the immigration lawyers say.

“We don’t have a current intention to go back,” said Wayne Weightman, an immigration consultant who works in Southeast Asia and has a Cambodian wife and adopted children, “but what it’s basically done is taken away the ability to return timely if you do need to go back.”